Case spike presses juvenile court services

More kids moved to waiting list, agency chief reports

When Juvenile Court Judge Brett Niemeier took the bench in 2001, among his rotation there was only one afternoon session reserved for children in need of services, called CHINS, cases.

Now, nearly 10 years later, the number of those cases is increasing, and so is the number of sessions Niemeier presides over.

In the last year, the number of children in need of services cases increased by almost 70 percent, and it's causing a domino effect for other agencies, such as Court Appointed Special Advocates, called CASA, and the Vanderburgh County Public Defender's Agency.

Compared to numbers from June 1 of last year, the juvenile court saw 158 more CHINS cases during the same time period in 2010.

In 2009, as of June 1, there were 224 cases, while this year there were 382.

"You can deal with it as long as it's a 5 (percent) or 10 percent increase. Whenever you're ever talking about over a 50 percent increase, it's extremely difficult," Niemeier said.

Niemeier said the numbers themselves are tragic.

"When you're talking about these kind of huge numbers, I don't think people realize that number, 382 new children, is just in the first six months of the year. That's 382 kids who are living in Evansville, Ind., have been found to be abused and neglected. That's astonishing that we have that many kids being abused and neglected in just six months."

The court is doing its best with limited resources, but if the trend continues, he said, another magistrate and support staff will be needed.

Judge notes expanded court hours

Because of the addition of more CHINS court sessions, he said, the court has now added "an overall extra 10 hours a week because of the increase."

"That's a lot if you're talking about a 40-hour workweek. It's that big of an increase," Niemeier said. "Ultimately, either the court's services will continue to diminish or more resources will have to be provided. I think the court's docket in the CHINS cases is the best example of how things have dramatically changed over the last 10 years."

Niemeier said cases will really be affected at the end of the process.

"We are continuing to make sure that they get in as soon as possible. We can continue to add sessions to get people in the door. ... How long will it take to get them out the door? How long is it going to take to conclude the cases?" he said.

He said he's unsure when he noticed the increase, but it was apparent after the first of the year that the number of new filings had increased drastically.

"I haven't seen a pattern. It's not as if the Department of Child Services has decided to file certain type of cases that they've never filed before," Niemeier said. "Normally the majority of our cases are related to drugs, but I haven't seen that all these new cases are drug cases, because they're not. It seems that there's an increase in every category."

Niemeier said he assumes the increases are occurring because of the economy, but nobody can say for certain.

Advocates stretched, seek new help

One of the agencies being affected by the increase in CHINS cases is CASA, which provides an independent voice for children during court proceedings, especially those dealing with abuse and neglect.

"It's a trickle-down effect for all of us. Our need right now is the number of volunteers because the CHINS numbers are way up, and we're automatically appointed on every CHINS," said Suzanne Draper, the executive director of CASA. "Our numbers are higher than they've every been. We're serving more children than we ever have, but our waiting list is higher than it's ever been."

As of last month, there were more than 400 children on the waiting list, so the nonprofit agency is having to prioritize cases, Draper said.

Draper said she began noticing the increase in April when the agency began displaying billboards to recruit volunteers.

"On there we put, '380 kids are waiting for a volunteer.' Then at one point we were up to 470 children on our waiting list since April," she said. "The last four months we've seen a huge increase; definitely a large increase compared to last year this time."

Draper said she's unsure exactly what the cause for the increase is, but she said from the cases she's seen it's mostly drug-related child abuse and neglect cases.

"I also think that more people are reporting abuse and neglect more ... somehow they're getting more calls. I don't know; I just know the numbers have increased considerably," she said.

Protecting kids No. 1 concern

Niemeier said having the advocates as part of the process is important and necessary.

"We're doing everything possible to make sure we don't have any more tragedies. We don't need any more Kalab Lays," he said, speaking of the 3-year-old boy who died April 1, 2008, from injuries suffered at the hands of his father, Terry Lay.

As Niemeier looks to the remainder of the year, he said his concern as a judge is making sure the court is able to provide adequate services to families.

"Are we doing our best to protect the kids? That's my No. 1 concern," he said. "We're doing the best we can with what we've got. We're to the bone. ... If this continues throughout this year, something has to give."